First it was our data, now author Gil Duran says the Tech Bros are coming for democracy

It’s D-Day for the collapsed New South Wales developer Bathla, which needs $20 million in cash to get to the end of the week, if not, the major property developer will be liquidated and with it, the dreams of hundreds of buyers who paid deposits for new apartments. AFR associate editor Primrose Riordan says the next few days will be critical.   The 2026 northern summer has driven home the reality of climate change in terrifying and deadly fashion; from the blistering heatwaves that gripped Great Britain like a vice for days on end, to the infernos that engulfed Europe’s holiday coasts and now of course, the catastrophic flash flooding in Nepal, which according to  scientists was triggered by a glacial melt and subsequent collapse. Paul Behrens British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford says it's not the new normal but the new abnormal. When the titans of Silicon Valley first spouted their ‘move fast and break things’ mantra they were hailed as heroes but little did we know it was democracy itself that they wanted to smash and replace with their own network states, their own laws and in their own image. That's the thesis of a new book called The Nerd Reich by journalist Gil Duran.